Running parallel to the Chao Phraya River, Charoen Krung is commonly known as one of Bangkok's oldest thoroughfares -- the first to be built according to modern engineering.
But when it comes to dining matters, epicures about town consider the 8km-long road, which stretches from Phra Nakhon district to Bang Kho Laem district, among the most food-blessed routes in the city.
Charoen Krung itself hosts a plethora of international food outlets, from riverside fine dining and 5-star hotel feasts to street grub. As an important part of Bangkok Chinatown, it's also a home of Thai-Chinese cuisine masters. Meanwhile the Bang Rak area of the road enjoys a large Muslim community and boasts some of the city's best Islamic fare.
This week Life will take you on a gastronomic expedition along the lower side of Charoen Krung, from the point where it meets with Silom Road to Thanon Tok junction. It's a 4km pursuit of culinary gems that have been hidden, forgotten and freshly discovered.
Wat Ratchasingkorn temple (near Charoen Krung 74) and Asiatique's car park (near Charoen Krung 99) are some of the very few public parking spaces available should you wish to take the trip by car. Fees may be applied.
Tuang Dim Sum by Chef Yip 
Call 089-603-0908
Open 7am-5pm.
Closed on Tuesday Cash only
This no-frills dim sum eatery is a rather new addition to the city food scene. Yet, even with much less publicity, the three-year-old spot has drawn a storm of urban gluttons into its jam-packed 30-seater, weekdays and weekends.
The shop is owned and run by chef Yip Yun Keong, a dim sum master from Hong Kong with long experience heading a 5-star hotel kitchen before moving to Bangkok.
More than 30 dim sum delicacies, from steamed to deep-fried items, are freshly prepared and served piping hot from a restless cooking station set at the shop front.
Don't miss ha gao (steamed prawn dumplings with translucent rice-flour shell); xu mai (steamed minced pork and shrimp dumplings); ham sui gok (deep-fried sticky rice flour ball with pork filling); steamed rice flour roll with barbecued pork filling; fluffy deep-fried taro puff; and braised pork spare ribs.
Salapao bun comes in various flavours with a variety of fillings, from custard cream, red bean, sweet taro, chocolate lava and even sticky rice.
Prices are 40-50 baht per basket for steamed items; 15 baht per piece for deep-fried items; and 17 baht per piece for steamed buns. That's approximately half of what you would pay for the same culinary contentment at a 5-star restaurant.
Only walk-in guests, and no reservations, are taken. At peak hours, from 11.30am-1pm, a long wait for a table in front of the steamy shop should be expected. But the gastronomic pleasure it offers is truly worth enduring the city heat for.
Park at a condominium next door with fee applied.
Prachak Roast Duck 
Call 02-234-3755
Open daily 8am-8.30pm Cash only
Prachak Ped Yang has for over a century been a trustworthy food haven for roast-duck fans -- in the neighbourhood and from across the city.
The one-unit shop house restaurant is one of Bang Rak's most-famous culinary draws, serving since 1909 a variety of Cantonese-style barbecued meats with the duck as its speciality.
A small order of roasted duck costs 100 baht. While an assortment of honey-glazed BBQ pork, roast duck, stuffed pork leg, crispy pork belly and sweet Chinese sausage is 100 baht.
For a quick meal fix, I recommend that you go for the flavourful roast duck with home-made egg noodles and plump shrimp wonton at 80 baht. Or have the duck with crispy pork and crabmeat on egg noodles at 100 baht.
Many other dishes are also on offer including stewed duck, wok-fried items and a small selection of dim sum.
Food comes quick and in rather generous portions. However, heartfelt genial service isn't to be expected from the very busy staff.
The restaurant is air-conditioned. Yet to avoid a stuffy crowd of takeaway clients as well as food-enthusiast peeping tourists on the ground floor, head upstairs where it's less noisy and seating plentiful.
Thip Hoy Thord Phu Khao Fai 
Call 02-233-1116
Open10.30am-8pm.
Closed on Sunday Cash only
Only a few metres down Charoen Krung 50, an alley next to Robinson department store, lies a small shop house eatery that's been serving hoy thord (fried shellfish pancake) for almost 50 years.
Its menu is simply built around two types of shellfish: mussel and oyster. Selection of dishes ranges from mussel pancake (50 baht), oyster pancake (75 baht) and semi-crudo oyster pancake (also known as aw-suan, 75 baht) to deep-fried omelette with a choice of shellfish over rice (55 baht) -- all prepared over high flame at the shopfront.
The all-time best-seller hoy malang phu thord is made with fresh mussels stir-fried with egg, rice flour, bean sprout and spring onions to result in a delicious, part-crispy part-glutenous savoury pancake.
Go for the hoy thup hoy, meaning shellfish on top of shellfish (90 baht), should you wish to sample both mussel and oyster at one go. This signature dish features a decent portion of plump and fresh local oysters on a crispy bed of mussel pancake. A slight drawback is the accompanying sweet chilli sauce, which we considered too watery in taste.
Service, basically by the shop's young owners, was brisk but not necessarily friendly.
Phor Khrua Thuean Yod Nak Toon 
Call 02-289-5105, 02-289-0563
Open 9am-4pm. Closed on Saturday
This food joint, tucked away at the end of a pedestrian alley between Chareon Krung 89 and 91, can be spotted by a ramshackle cooking station set at the shopfront.
Though without certification from any culinary institute (as phor khrua thuean means "pirate chef"), the 49-year-old is much loved by local epicures and media.
The evidence can be seen through a collection of framed media reviews that adorn the walls of its non-air-conditioned dining room.
The restaurant first opened in 1969, and as the name yod nak toon -- meaning an expert of long-simmered stewed dishes -- suggests, it serves up a vast variety of piping-hot soups that have simmered for hours in a steamer over a wood-fire stove.
Approximately 20 kinds of Chinese-style soup are available each day, from bitter gourd with pork ribs, fish maw with chicken, beef with potato, bamboo pith with sea conch and black chicken with herbs. Half of the soup choices are likely to be sold out if you arrive after midday.
Our best recommendations include ped toon fuk manao dong, or duck and squash soup infused with pickled lime (80 baht); pork spare rib with chestnut and Chinese dates (70 baht); and sweet pickled lettuce core with young pork rib (70 baht).
There is also a decent selection of non-steamed dishes worth enjoying. Options include braised razor clams, wok-fried white chives with crispy pork, deep-fried garoupa fish and river prawn with garlic-pepper sauce.
Parking is available at Wat Ratchasingkorn, a temple across the street. Parking fees might be applied.
Muslim restaurant 
Call 02-234-1876
Open 7am-5pm;
Closed on the 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month Cash only
This Islamic-cuisine restaurant is one of the longest-standing yet most humble and generous food joints in the Silom-Bang Rak vicinity.
Opened in the 1930s, the open-air restaurant set in a two-unit shophouse serves up classic Indian-style home-cooked fare with very affordable price tags.
Not a Muslim and living on the other part of town, I have been a forever fan of its chicken biryani (80 baht), oxtail soup (80 baht), garden salad with peanut curry sauce and sweet potato chips (35 baht), beef satay (80 baht for a set of 10 skewers) and matabbak (folded pancake with meat filling, 50 baht).
The beef green curry (80 baht) here is, for me, the best in the city. While hot tea with silky milk skin (25 baht per cup) always gives soothing comfort.
Other classic dishes from the restaurant's 40-item menu are such as fish curry, vegetable curry, beef brain curry, chicken korma, mutton masala and dhal curry are also on offer. A very special mutton biryani (180 baht) is available on Monday and Friday.
Joke Prince 
Call 02-234-9407 and 089-795-2629
Open daily, 6am-noon and 4pm-9pm
The age-old food stall got its name from Prince cinema, a C-grade movie theatre (now defunct) at the end of the alley where the stall is located.
Its speciality joke (congee in Cantonese or rice porridge in English) is highly treasured as one of the best in the city. The dish, made with broken rice seethed in mild broth until forming an aromatic thick and smooth consistency, is a popular breakfast choice among Thais. However, a long queue of customers, from students to office workers and tourists, is a common sight here -- morning or night.
Prices start at 45 baht, with a minced pork ball topping and up to 60 baht for minced pork, offal, preserved egg and fresh egg topping.
Meng Chicken Rice
Call 02-211-1400 and 083-607-1420
Open daily 10.30am-midnight Cash only
The location adjacent to a Fire Station got this 40-year-old shophouse eatery an alternative moniker, khao mun gai dup phleung, meaning fire house chicken rice.
Using only free-range chicken, the chicken meat here exhibits a full-flavour quality and is pleasantly chewy -- neither mushy nor stiff in its mouthfeel. Rice, cooked in chicken fat and broth, is aromatic, tasty and not too oily. The ginger-seethed dark soy sauce, meanwhile, can be too fiery-hot for those chilli-sensitive.
A plate of chicken rice, option of steamed or deep-fried battered chicken, costs 50 baht.
Bangkok Sausage and Ham 
Call 02-2917087
Open 9am-7pm. Closed on Sunday Cash only
This air-con shop situated between Asiatique and Wat Ratchasingkorn temple is the only place on this list that's not a restaurant. But it's a real paradise if you like hot dog-style sausage.
Bangkok Sausage and Ham has been in business for almost a century as a manufacturer of cured meat supplying a number of fine restaurants in the city. Their fresh products, from pork frankfurter, chilli bologna, smoked ham, bacon and chicken bologna to spicy basil cocktail sausage, are sold only at the shop and are not available anywhere else.
I highly recommend the vienna sausage with a nice smoky fragrance and crunchy skin that pops upon each bite (380 baht per kilo) and silkily sumptuous pork liver pate (35 baht per small tube).
